In the world according to Idaho legislators Tom Loertscher and Steven Thayn, a wife should stay home with her children. In the world of the two Republican representatives, a woman’s job is to cook, scrub, knit, baby-sit her own children, and fetch a martini for her tired husband in the evening.

Never mind that their world didn’t exist even in the glamorized Ozzie and Harriet days of the 1950s. Rosie the Riveter forever changed the face of the workplace during World War II. Not only are women part of the modern workplace, but they hold key positions in every important sector, including medical, military, religious, media and corporate fields.

As a result, many families need safe day-care facilities.

Yet, Loertscher and Thayn sided with four other out-of-touch legislators in a 6-5 majority to reject minimum safety requirements and criminal history checks. Loertscher and Thayn are being singled out here because their explanations for their vote are absurd. Anguishing, Loertscher said: “What can we do to keep mom at home?” A better question for Idaho families would be: What can we do to prevent embarrassing legislators like these from representing our state?

Loertscher and Thayn aren’t the only Idaho legislators with a backward view of the day-care industry. Two days after the shameful health and welfare panel vote, the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies released a survey comparing how states regulate child-care centers.

Idaho was dead last.

Day care isn’t a necessary evil for women who are shirking their familial duties, as some Idaho legislators might contend. It’s an essential part of the modern work force. Working parents – married, divorced and single – need day care for a variety of reasons. It isn’t the Legislature’s business to decide which reasons are legitimate and which aren’t. In right-to-work Idaho, where low pay is common, both parents often have to work to meet basic needs. Unfortunately, some rely on cut-rate day care providers. Now, the Legislature has denied them the assurance that those centers are safe and their operators aren’t criminal risks.

Idaho lawmakers need look no further than Kootenai County to discover that child centers attract scary people. In 2001, the state revoked Misty Krous’ license for day care in her Post Falls home after her husband, Stephen, was convicted of molesting an 11-year-old. In 2004, the woman got a license for her Happy Days Child Care center in Coeur d’Alene without revealing that her husband is a registered sex offender. An unproved allegation against her husband, that he tried to entice a 3-year-old with a lollipop, prompted Coeur d’Alene to toughen its day-care laws. Now, day-care owners there are required to disclose if any immediate family member is a sex offender and to post that information, with a photo, near the business door.

Coeur d’Alene is one of nine Idaho cities that have stricter day-care licensing rules than the state. However, unscrupulous operators can easily skirt city day-care laws by moving if they’re caught doing something wrong. Or by opening their businesses outside city limits, apparently with the Legislature’s blessing.